Door handles



NOV. 9; 1965 w, CAMPBELL 3,216,757

DOOR HANDLES Filed June 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 9; 1965 w. J. CAMPBELL DOOR HANDLES Filed June 27. 1961 FIG. 4.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 9; 1965 w. J. CAMPBELL 3,216,757

DOOR HANDLES Filed June 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent 3,216,757 DOOR HANDLES William J. Campbell, 42 Hamilton Ave., Glasgow, Scotland Filed June 27, 1961, Ser. No, 119,911 Claims priority, application Great Britain, July 7, 1960, 23,753/60; Nov. 2, 1960, 37,671/60 7 Claims. (Cl. 292358) This invention concerns improvements in or relating to door handles, and more particularly door handles of the spring bolt operating bar type in which a spring bolt operating bar is connected to a handgrip so as to be rotated on rotation of the handgrip. The spring bolt operating bar is intended to be engaged with the socket of a follower associated with a spring bolt mechanism so that rotation of the spring bolt operating bar causes actuation of the follower to operate the bolt of the spring bolt mechanism.

A door handle is customarily provided with a cavity which is positioned on the pivotal axis and which is of sufiicient depth to provide for lengthwise adjustment of the spring bolt operating bar which passes through the stile of the door and which causes actuation of the follower associated with the spring bolt mechanism.

It is an object of this invention to provide a door handle in which lengthwise adjustment of the spring bolt operating bar may be achieved withont the requirement of providing a cavity within the handle. In this way it is possible to provide a door handle which projects from the face of the associated stile of the door a smaller distance than has hitherto been the case.

In a door handle of the spring bolt operating bar type according to the invention comprising a spring bolt operat ing bar, a follower connected to said spring bolt operating bar and a spring bolt mechanism connected to and opera- Me by said follower, the spring bolt operating bar comprises two members, a portion of each of said members constituting means for adjusting and locking said members, one longitudinal side face of one said portion being located adjacent to a longitudinal side face of said portion of said other member, said portions being adapted to be located Within said socket of the follower as to be substantially prevented from separating in a transverse direction, and a member axially disposed relative to the longitudinal axes of said portions and engageable with said portions thereby to permit longitudinal adjustment and locking of said members.

A handle, according to the invention, is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of a left hand lever handle viewed in its normal position as applied to a door.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of parts along the line AA of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but showing an alternative embodiment of the handle.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but without the spring bolt operating bar.

FIG. 5 is an end, view, from the opening edge of the door, of the handle, with associated escutcheon plate and spring bolt operating bar as related to the position of the parts shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternative form of an elongated escutcheon plate.

FIG. 7 is an axial view in partial section of the spring bolt operating bar as illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5 but drawn to a larger scale.

FIG. 8 is an isometric view of part of the spring bolt operating bar illustrated in FIG. 7.

Referring to the drawings, 1 denotes a lever serving as the handgrip for a handle joined to a palm 2. The palm 2 has a spigot 3 having a centrally located tapered socket 4 intended to receive a spring bolt operating bar 5 which is retained in the socket 4 by a screw 6 sunk fiusk into the side of the palm 2 opposite from the spigot 3 The spring bolt operating bar 5 is engageable in the socket of a followed 7 (FIGS. 2, 3 and 7) of a spring bolt mechanism 8 (FIGS. 1 and 2) and is of such a cross-section, for example square, as to be nonr-otatable relative to the follower 7.

The spring bolt operating bar 5 comprises two members 9, 10 which are mounted co-axially and are interconnected, in the manner hereinafter described by a long screw 11 (FIGURE 7) for permitting of axial adjustment of the members 9, 10 relative to one another and of locking the members 9, 10 relative to one another. The long screw 11 is located within the socket of the follower 7 of the spring bolt mechanism 8 Referring particularly to FIGS. 7 and 8 one end portion of the member 9 has a plain bore 12 and is tapered to fit into the socket 4 in the spigot 3 located on one face of the stile of the door. One end portion of the other member 10 has an internally screw-threaded bore 13 and is tapered to fit and to be fastened by a short screw into the socket 4 in the spigot 3 located on the other face of the stile of the door. The end portion of each member 9, 10 remote from the end portion intended to fit into the sockets 4 has an elongated portion 14 one face of which is formed with an arcuate screwthreaded groove 15, which, when the members 9., 10 are assembled together to constitute the spring bolt operating bar 5, presents with the other groove 15 a screw threaded passage intended to mate with external screw threads onthe long screw 11 insertable through the bore 12. The portions 14 are prevented from separating in a transverse direction relative to the longitudinal axis of the spring bolt operating bar 5 by the socket of the follower 7 constituting part of the spring bolt mechanism 8.

When it is desirable to have the. spring bolt operating bar 5 firmly located in the socket of the follower 7, the elongated portions 14 of the two members 9, 10 may have been previously made with a slight convex curve towards each other so that the insertion of the long screw will tend to separate them to straighten the members against the internal face of the socket.

Alternatively the same effect may be achieved by screw threading only a longitudinally extending arc of the central segment of each groove 15. The separating effect is then achieved by the tendency of the screw threads on the mating screw threaded member (not illustrated) to slip out of engagement with the screw threads in the grooves 15.

The elongated portions 14 of the members 9, 10 are notched to facilitate cutting of the members 9, 10 thereby to vary the range of the lengths of the spring bolt operating bar 5 which is obtainable.

The spigot 3 is located substantially on the centre of gravity of the handle. The handgrip 1 has therefore substantially no turning moment about the axis of the spigot 3.

In an alternative embodiment of door handle (FIG. 3) the, pivotal axis of the handgrip 1 is located a distance from the centre of gravity of the handgrip 1' in such a direction that pivoting of the handgrip 1 to open the associated door causes the centre of gravity of the handgrip 1' to be raised.

The spigot 3 is rotatably located in the bore 16 of the escutcheon plate 17 which is fastened to the door stile by a plurality of screws threaded into countersunk holes 18. The escutcheon plate is of any shape, two shapes being shown in FIGS. and 6, one plate 17' being a round plate, which is entirely concealed under the palm 2 of the handle in the normal position of the handle, and the other plate 17' being elongated to become also a key-hole escutcheon plate. The elongated form of escutcheon plate 17' has a concealed recess 18' of T -shape in vertical cross section to mate with a cap 19 which is fastened on the door stile by a countersunk screw so that the elongated escutcheon plate 17' may be slid onto the cap 19 to maintain a more accurate location of the keyhole than would be obtained only by screws concealed by the palm 2.

A handle according to the invention is intended primarily to operate with door fastenings having springurged bolts, but it is not unusual for an occasional nonrotatable dummy handle of similar visual form to be required to match a set of operable handles. In such cases, the construction shown in FIG. 4, with the limiting pig 20 is screwed directly to the door through the socket 4 with the spigot 3 and the peg 20 sunk into the door. In other special cases, a single balanced lever handle may be used on a bar with another form of handle fastened to the other end.

In a further form of handle according to the inven tion on the peg 21 (FIG. 5) is so mounted in the palm 2 of the handle as to be axially movable therein from a position in which the peg 21 is in engagement with a hole or recess 22 in the escutcheon plate 17 to a position in which the peg 21 is not so engaged and vice versa. When the peg 21 is in engagement with the hole or recess 22 in the escutcheon plate 17 turning of the palm 2 relative to the escutcheon plate 17 is impossible and so the associated door, which may, for example, be a bathroom door, can be locked in the closed position.

In an alternative form of door handle, according to the invention, the spigot 3 is located on the palm 2 vertically above the position illustrated in FIG. 1, so that the lever handle 1 returns freely to its normal position independently of the bolt spring; or the spigot 3 may be located on the palm 2 further inwards of the opening edge of a door 23 than the centre of gravity of the handle 1, so that the handle tends to return freely beyond the normal horizontal position shown in the draw- 1 In the latter case, the limiting peg 20 (FIG. 4)

mgs. projects from the palm to enter a recess 24 (FIG. 6) in the escutcheon plate 17 to limit the travel of the handgrip 1 to a desired extent. Although, in the latter case, the handgrip 1 can only be turned in one direction, usually downwards, to open the door 23, in all other cases the handgrip 1 can be turned either upwards or downwards to open the door 23. The handle is thus operable from a horizontal position or from any other initial position.

To reduce friction in operation of the handle, a bearing strip 25 (FIG. 4) concentric with the spigot 3 is provided around the spigot 3. The strip consists of a thin layer of material having a low co-efficient of friction. If the bearing surface of the spigot 3 is of aluminium hard anodising this surface permits of the strip 25 having a low co-efiicient of friction being omitted.

In practice, relative axial adjustment of the portions 14, before insertion of the screw through 12 determines the effective length of the spring bolt operating bar 5. When the long screw is tightened through the lever boss and the bore 12 to engage and fasten, relatively to each other, the two arcuate screw threaded grooves 15 it will simultaneously fasten the lever boss to the tapered shank of the member 9. By this means a pair of handles may be securely fastened together at a suitable length appropriate to the thickness of the door stile.

Door handles of the lever type are known in which the handle is pivoted on a shank nearer to the edge of the associated stile of a door than the centre of gravity of the handle, the shank having a handgrip normally projecting in the direction away from said edge. Owing to the weight of the handgrip, a spring is incorporated which may be attached to an escutcheon plate associated with the handle and to the shank for exerting a force which substantially counterbalances the weight of the handgrip. It is also known for some door handles, instead of having a spring located as above described, to have the spring which acts directly on the bolt in the spring bolt mechanism of sufficient strength to provide the required counterbalancing torque.

A preferred form of door handle according to this invention is balanced as described above without the necessity of incorporating an escutcheon spring or an extra strong spring into the mechanism of the spring bolt. The elimination of the escutcheon spring is an additional factor in permitting the handle to project a smaller distance from the face of the door than has hitherto been the case.

In addition to the advantage of not requiring a spring in the escutcheon plate 17, it has been discovered that the balanced lever handgrip 1 requires less maintenance than an unbalanced handle. There are no spring breakages and there is much less wear and loosening of the door fastening screws as there is minimum spring torque to be overcome in operation of the handle. The handle also has the advantage of concealed fastening screws in its normal position even with an elongated escutcheon plate 13.

What is claimed is:

1. A door handle of the type having a spring bolt operating bar, a follower connected to said spring bolt operating bar and a spring bolt mechanism connected to and operable by said follower in which said spring bolt operating bar comprises two members, a portion of each of said members constituting means for adjusting and.

locking said members, one longitudinal side face of one said portion being located adjacent to a longitudinal side face of said portion of said other member, said portions being adapted to be located within said socket of the follower as to be substantially prevented from separating in a transverse direction, and a member axially disposed relative to the longitudinal axes of said portions and located between one longitudinal side face of one said portion and said longitudinal side face of said portion of said other member, said member being engageable with said portions thereby to permit of longitudinal adjustment and locking of said members.

2. A door handle according to claim 1 in which a groove of substantially arcuate cross-section, at least a longitudinally extending arc of which is screw-threaded, is formed on each of said side faces, said member which is engageable with said portions being constituted by a screw-threaded member which is engageable with the screw-threaded passage defined by said grooves.

3. A door handle according to claim 2 in which a head on said screw-threaded member connects the spring bolt operating bar to said door handle when said screwthreaded member is inserted into the screw-threaded passage formed by the screw-threaded grooves from one end thereof.

4. A door handle according to claim 1 in which the pivotal axis of the handgrip of the handle is located substantially coincident with the center of gravity of the handle. r

5. A door handle according to claim 1 in which the pivotal axis of the handgrip is so located in relation to the center of gravity of the handle that pivotal movement of the handgrip to open the associated door raises the center of gravity of the handle so that the handgrip returns to its original position on being released.

6. A door handle according to claim 5 in which an abutment means is mounted to the door thereby to stop pivotal movement of the handgrip as said handgrip returns to its original position under the influence of gravity.

7. A door handle according to claim 1 in which an abutment means is mounted in the handle as to be axially movable therein, and a hole or recess is located in a part of the handle which is rotatable relative to the part of the handle in which said abutment means is mounted, 10

so that said abutment means is movable from a nonengaged position with said hole or recess to a position in which said abutment means is engaged with said hole or recess in which position the associated door is locked in the closed position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/81 Shorland 292-358 7/07 Issleib 292-358 10/22 Szalai 292145 10/ 29 Petermann 292-35 8 12/ 38 Gravesen 292-358 12/ 61 Welch et al 292-356 FOREIGN PATENTS 9/50 Great Britain.

Examiners. 

1. A DOOR HANDLE OF THE TYPE HAVING A SPRING BOLT OPERATING BAR, A FOLLOWER CONNECTED TO SAID SPRING BOLT OPERATING BAR AND A SPRING BOLT MECHANISM CONNECTED TO AND OPERABLE BY SAID FOLLOWER IN WHICH SAID SPRING BOLT OPERATING BAR COMPRISES TWO MEMBERS, A PORTION OF EACH OF SAID MEMBERS CONSTITUTING MEANS FOR ADJUSTING AND LOCKING SAID MEMBERS, ONE LONGITUDINAL SIDE FACE OF ONE SAID PORTION BEING LOCATED ADJACENT TO A LONGITUDINAL SIDE FACE OF SAID PORTION OF SAID OTHER MEMBER, SAID PORTIONS BEING ADAPTED TO BE LOCATED WITHIN SAID SOCKET OF THE FOLLOWER AS TO BE SUBSTANTIALLY PREVENTED FROM SEPARATING IN A TRANSVERSE DIRECTION, AND A MEMBER AXIALLY DISPOSED RELATIVE TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXES OF SAID PORTIONS AND LOCATED BETWEEN ONE LONGITUDINAL SIDE FACE OF ONE SAID PORTION AND SAID LONGITUDINAL SIDE FACE OF SAID PORTION OF SAID OTHER MEMBER, SAID MEMBER BEING ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID PORTIONS THEREBY TO PERMIT OF LONGITUDINAL ADJUSTMENT AND LOCKING OF SAID MEMBERS. 